Forever Running
by domina tempore
Summary: Ronon is gone with no warning, no explanation... and no goodbye.
1. Betrayed

_Author's Note: This story is slightly similar to "Ever Mine"; I was on a huge Ronon-whump kick :) But this is it's own original story, I promise you! I decided to post it now because of several wonderful reviews from** fyd818**, who asked for more. Here is more :D Read, and enjoy! _

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Prologue

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How could Ronon do this? How could he just leave? After all that they had been through together, the team at least deserved an explanation, a goodbye. Something other then Elizabeth's shocking news that he had left last night. They suspected that she knew why, but she wouldn't tell them anything. They were all numb with shock and pain at this loss.

Sheppard felt like he had been betrayed; he had come to think of Ronon as his brother. He couldn't believe that his friend wouldn't tell him that he was thinking about something like this.

McKay almost didn't believe it. The big guy that had teased him all the time, but had never abandoned him to the enemy, was gone. Suddenly, the universe felt more huge and unsafe then ever.

Teyla was devastated. Ronon had been her closest friend, the only person on Atlantis she felt she could relate to; they had a common, lifelong enemy, and being from Pegasus gave them a bond that no one could match. She'd even thought she loved him. But obviously that was not the case for him.

She wasn't sure what it was that she thought he had done; but it felt like betrayal.

_A/N: You can read this whole story on Atlanitca, posted under "jewel_of_athos", if you're impatient. But I'm in the process of re-formatting it for this site, so posting will be done over the course of the next couple of weeks. Sorry for the delay!_


	2. Bad Dreams

_A/N: I hope that this chapter whets your appetites :) There is whumpage._

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Chapter One

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Ronon was running, faster then he had ever run before. This time, he knew what hunted him; and in his eyes was something that no one had ever seen him feel for himself; fear. Whatever was chasing him, it was terrible enough that he was horribly, horribly afraid.

His feet barely seemed to touch the ground, he was running so fast; everything around him was a blur, and he only had one goal; escape. No matter how he had to accomplish this goal, he knew he had no other chooice.

Suddenly, someone stepped out onto the path in front of him, and his goal shifted drastically as he recognized her and forced himself to stop or run her over. She held out her hand to steady him, but he stepped back so that he was just out of her reach. She frown in confusion.

"It's alright, Ronon," her cool, clear voice entered him and allowed him a second of peace. But it disappeared again almost instantly when she stopped speaking.

"Teyla, get out of here," he gasped. Her head canted in confusion as she took a step towards him, her had outstretched in what should have been a calming gesture. It wasn't.

"Ronon, everything is fine, you're safe now. Come back home with me, you've been running long enough." he shook his head.

"I can't!" he pleaded. "Not as long as they're hunting me."

"Hunting you? Ronon, you are not a runner anymore; they cannot track you like they once did."

"They're using me to find Atlantis," he persisted. "You have to go, get out of here before the seeker finds us."

"Ronon..." but a savage growl reached their ears. Ronon realized what it was before she did.

"Teyla, _run_!" even as he spoke he was racing towards her, knowing that she had no time for escape.

The creature came out of nowhere, launching itself at her at full speed. As Ronon had known, she had no time to run. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact... it never came.

Ronon had thrown himself in front of her at the last second, blocking the creature attack with his own body. She realized how close it was when the thing's fingers brushed her cheek, drawing blood.

The second it had hit Ronon, everything had errupted into a bloody battle. The seeker wraith was different from any that Teyla had yet fought; though she was sure that Ronon had encountered many as a runner. But the thing that she was not prepared for, was for Ronon to lose. The creature was tearing him appart!

The seeker gave a bloodcurdling shriek, preparing to finish it's prey.

"_Ronon, NO_!" Teyla heard herself screaming. She forced her eyes opened and found herself in bed, in her room on Atlantis. She tried desperately to calm her breathing as the cool, conditioned air cooled the sweat on her bare arms and her face. She could feel herself shaking uncontrollably, her lips trembling as they did whenever she tried to hold back emotion. And tonight she was also fighting back tears.

At that moment, more then ever, she felt the loss of Ronon's leaving their lives. If he had stayed he would have been at her side by now, holding her in his arms and stroking her hair and whispering sweet nothings in her ear until she fell asleep. It wasn't fair! Why was it alright for him to leave, to cause all of them so much pain? If one of them had done the same he would have tracked them down and brought them back. What made it right for him to abandon them?

She made her still-trembling body lay back down, her fear giving way to the anger that filled her. Though she did not move again that night, she could not sleep.

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"It was terrible," Kate Heighmeyer leaned forward a bit, as always intreagued and challenged by Teyla's description of her dreams. And this one was shaping up to be the most interesting one yet. In a sort of morbid way, she was excited.

"Why? What was terrible about it?" by now Teyla was used to her seemingly dumbed-down questions. She just wanted her to remember all the details, to help both of them understand.

"Everything. The forest, the creature...his face." from Teyla's own face, Kate could tell that the last part wasn't something that she was ready to talk about yet. So she chose the one that was most likely to be the root of any trouble.

"Tell me about the creature." Teyla sighed, her eyes unfocusing slightly as she remembered.

"It was like a wraith, but worse. His flesh was dark and ripped, like it was literally rooting off of him. He had crooked yellow teeth, barred like a wolf's more then a wraith. His eyes were the same; wild and predatory and base, running on instinct rather then any sort of intellegence. Except when he looked at me; I saw unimaginable longing and hunger and lust." she shuddered, frightened by the memory.

"Was there anything else?" Kate asked when Teyla didn't continue. "About his memory, his sense...?" Teyla's head snapped up.

"His sense?"

"Yes," Kate knew that they would go through this several times before Teyla shared enough to satisfy her. "Normally when you have these dreams, a sense of the wraith accomponies it, whether the it turns out to be real or not," which Kate had a theory about, and suspcted that Teyla did as well. But she would have time enough to ask about that later.

"His sense was like his eyes," Teyla said after a moment. "Instinctive, except concerning me." she paused. "And he smelled rotten, like a corpse."

"He had a smell?" Tela nodded.

"Yes, it is a common occurance in my dreams; I would think nothing of it, except it was much stronger. If it was not so intense I would not have mentioned it." now that was interesting.

"Are you thats in? Anything more about how he looked, anything else unusual, at a different level then normal?" Teyla thought for a moment.

"The only other thing I remember about him is his hands. His nails were long and sharp; when he reached past Ronon to get to me, he scratched my face." as she spoke, she saw Kate's eyes grow very scared. "What is it?"

"Teyla, I think you should go and see Dr. Beckett."

"Why?" Kate mimed scratching next to her own cheek; and her voice shook as she spoke.

"Because you're... _bleeding_." Teyla reached up to touch her face and was horrified when her fingers came away warm and sticky with blood. She looked between Kate and her hand, and back to Kate again.

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As Ronon reached the halfway-point of the mountain he'd been climbing, he sighed. It was a relief to finally be this far; he hadn't allowed himself a break until this point. As he paused for a brief rest, he turned and let his eyes scan the valley below him with caution: he knew they were still following him. But he saw no movements below other then the faint breeze that moved the treetops. With a frustrated grunt, he started to move again. The seeker wouldn't have given up; once they chose a victim, they didn't stop hunting their prey until it was dead or they were. Ronon was betting on the latter.

As he continued his ascent, he kept his senses sharp to the point of being hyper-alert; but he allowed his mind to wander a bit to other things. Mostly that consisted of his friends on Atlantis, and the reasons that he'd left.

He hadn't wanted to leave; that much he hoped they'd understand. Elizabeth he had told, as much to assure her that he wouldn't reveal the location of the city as anything else. And she'd agreed that it was best if they didn't tell the others; they would gladly have put their own lives on the line to save him, he knew it. And if they died becasue of it, that was something that he couldn't live with.

The other reason that he'd left was because of a promise he'd made to a friend on Sateda- it was so long ago- that running had forced him to ignore. But now everything was almost right again; and he would not fail a second time.

Determination fueled his steps as he continued on. Once he killed the seekers, the rest would be easy. All he had to do was climb a little higher to a rock shelf he had seen, perfect for his long-anticipated battle with the seekers. Just a little further...

He reached the rock shelf, which extended a few meters in every direction out of the trees that covered most of the mountian. It was a good place to fight, if you wanted to put your enemy at a disadvantage. No place for them to run but back into the trees, no way for then to sneak up on him across the bare rock... no way for them to save themselves if they fell off the edge. He grinned. Yes, this was the perfect place to fight the seekers.

He knew he had at least a few minutes of breathing room, and he took advantage of it to make sure that everything was in place. He ate a little, found a convenient niche in the rock to hide his gun; he wanted to make the seekers think that he was defenseless. And he checked to make sure that every one of his knives was in its proper place and easily accessible. Then he settled in to wait. He didn't wait long.

Cautiously, four seeker-wraith emerged from the tree and, spotting him on the rock shelf, began to stalk forward. Behind them were two hunters, who carried themselves straight and had weapons, and didn't have that frenzied, wildly-hungry look that the seekers did.

Ronon spared the hunters only a glance; all such wraith were the same, and rather unimaginative. They knew that if they stunned him their seekers would swarm him, and take his life anf tear him to pieces before they could even blink; he had nothing to fear from them. But the seekers he studied carefully. They walked in a permanent crouch, moving with erratic, jerky movements. Their long hair was matted with dirt and sweat and what was probably blood. Their mouths were opened slightly, exposing crooked, sharp fangs; and their nails were more like claws. All this he had expected; he had dealt with them before. But it was their eyes that worried him. Every seeker he'd ever encountered before this had been totally wild, little more then animals; crazed dogs who obeyed their evil masters. They'd held nothing but hate and hunger. But there had something else; as wild and as starved as they were, their eyes betrayed a level of intellegence. And that worried him more then their chasing him did.

All these thoughts took only a fraction of a second. he dismissed them and rose to his feet, flexing his fingers in anticipation. But the seekers paused, panting and staring at him, unwilling or unable to move.

"What's wrong?" he challenged, not sure if he was speaking to the hunters or their disgustinng pets. "Afraid to fight me, cowards?" he recieved no answer, and instantly suspected an attack. He wasn't disappointed.

The seekers had remained frozen for just a few more seconds; then suddenly they leaped on him. Memories of being hunted by a pack of them once dominated his mind, and he tried to remember every trick that had worked that time. But it had been a long time since he'd fought four enemies so unpredictable at the same time, and he was taking more then his share of blows; though he was holding his own.

Suddenly, a vision flared in his mind, distracting him. He saw Teyla and Sheppard lying unmoving on a hard black floor--- a wraith ship, he realized-- and McKay standing over them with a gun, swinging it around to try and target on of dozens of seekers that advanced on them, surrounding them; they smelled their victems blood and they craved it. They were ready to take their fill...

"No!" but the vision was over. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more then a few seconds for the distance that the seekers had moved; but it was enought to steal his edge. Before he realized what was happening he felt pain in his legs, in his stomach, in his head. The last thing he remembered before blackness took him was the faces of the seekers above him, blocking his view of the sky, their fangs dripping in what he was sure was his own blood.

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"Are you sure thats how it happened?" Beckett asked Teyla and Kate for the hundredth time since they'd reached the infirmary.

"Yes," Kate insisted. "When she started talking about how it scratched her in the dream, her face started bleeding."

"And you're sure she had nothing wrong with her before that?" he pressed.

"I think I would have noticed if I was covered in blood," Teyla spoke a little angrily; the first time she'd ever been angry with Dr. Beckett.

"I'm sorry love; but barring an invisible animal scratching you- and I'm betting it wasn't that- I can't think of anything else that could have caused this. Unless you did it to yourself accidentally."

"I did not tear my own cheek opened, unintentionally or otherwise."

"I didn't think so." he sighed as he put stitches in the three long cuts.

"Do you think it's phsycho-sematic?" Kate wonderd out loud. Beckett looked at her.

"Maybe. But that's awfully intense." Kate shrugged.

"We are in the Pegasus galaxy," Carson managed a small smile.

"Aye."

"What does that mean?" Teyla broke the brief silence. "Pshycho-sematic?"

"It's a fancy word for your brain tricking your body into feeling pain or things like that, because of something you're told, or something you think. For example, a man on earth froze to death when it wasn't cold."

"How is that possible?"

"He was in a freezer or something, and he was sure he was going to freeze to death. The freezer was off, but he didn't know that. But he was so sure that it was freezing that his body reacted as if it were freezing, and he died."

"Or like Dr. McKay," Beckett added helpfuly. "If you tell him he might be sick, he'll think so much about it that he actually makes himself get sick." Teyla nodded, then frowned.

"But I did not believe that I was hurt, nor did I have any reason to."

"Aye, that's something."

"And this level of reaction is very unusual as well," Kate said. "I'm not sure I've ever heard of a case where flesh actually ripped of its own accord."

"So I'm back to being the medical freak show of the city," Teyla joked bitterly.

"Nonsense, Teyla," Beckett tried to console her with a joke of his own. "You should know by now that that is and always will be Rodney." She managed to laugh a little. Beckett grinned.

"Much better; I'd rather see you smiling. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be right back. Since we don't know what it was that scratched you, I'm going to have to give you a shot of antibiotics." once he left them Kate turned to Teyla. Teyla expected her to ask her more about the dream, so she was surprised by her question. But Kate had found nothing in the monster that explained the reason for thr dream, and she thought she knew what it was that had caused it.

"How do you feel about Ronon being gone?" taken aback, Teyla took a minute to answer. For a second she questioned if she should; but she trusted Kate not only as a doctor--- she never found the word phsycologist appropriate--- but as her friend.

"It is not the fact that he is gone that upsets me; I miss him, yes, but I knew it would happen someday; he is a wanderer, forever a runner. But he left without any sort of warning, or discussion... or goodbye." she sighed. "I know Elizabeth said it was necessary and that he promised to come back, but I feel like..." here her words caught in her throat, cut off by a strangled sob. It was a moment before she could speak again, and when she did her voice was shaking.

"I feel like he abandoned us," she said. "That he left becasue there was something wrong with us, with me." she squeezed her eyes closed and managed to trap in every tear but one. Kate wrapped her in a gentle embrace.

"Oh, sweetie," she murmured, rubbing her back gently. She knew there was nothing she could do to take her pain away; but at the very least she would help her deal with it.


	3. Pressure

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Chapter 2

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Ronon woke up on the cold floor of a wraith cell. For a moment he was confused and disoriented; and he wasn't sure where he was. But his entire body was in pain, and the pain helped to call up the memories. The mounain, the seekers, his vision during the fight... the fight! He sat straight up and cried out when the pain the movement caused him exploded through his body. He realized that he'd lost. So why wasn't he dead? More carefully this time, he moved each part of his body seperately, assessing his weren't quite as bad as he'd expected; it was a good bet a couple of his ribs were broken, and his left hand definately was. But he'd dealt with a lot worse then that, and for now it seemed to be the extent of his internal injuries. But then there was the small matter of the bruises and gashes that covered his chest and back. Some of those gashes were bite marks, and he realized that the seekers had been stopped from killing him. He had to wonder why.

Normally, Ronon made a point not to hate one wraith more then the other; his two exceptions had been Michael, and the wraith that had brought him back to Sateda to be hunted again, that the one Ronon had killed there. But he decided that the seekers were right up there in the ranks with the worst of them.

He half crawled, half dragged himself to the door, made of that peculiar hard webbing that he'd grown accustomed to on hives (if this was a hive), and tried to see as far down the corridor as he could. He saw no guards, which confused him. More then that, it was insulting! The wraith who had captured him definately knew who he was; otherwise, why would they have sent 4 seekers after them? He couldn't believe they'd be so careless.

"_It's probably a trap_," he reasoned with himself, backing away from the door. Which, for him, meant nothing more then _'I need to think of something more creative then usual to get past it.'  
_Careful not to disturb any of his injuries, he laid back down on the cold floor, and began to plan.

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Elizabeth was concerned when she heard about the odd injuries that Teyla had aquired, literally out of thin air. She wondered briefly if it had anything to do with the creatures Ronon was so sure were hunting him. She was instantly torn between breaking her promise to him and not finding out what had happened to Teyla. When she went to see her, Dr. Beckett could tell that she knew or guessed something. Sheppard was down there at the same time, and he saw it too--- and luckily McKay had just left, or he would have blurted out a question that she was not prepared to answer--- but neither of them said anything.

"What happened?" Elizabeth had asked. Teyla had told the story, but had also told her that she was tired of repeating the story every few minutes as well. Elizabeth laughed a little.

"I'll have you announce it over citywide next time," she teased.

"And and I already got yelled at about this," Sheppard said, "so before you ask, the doctors don't know anything yet. Doc ran a few scans on her and is running up some test results now; but it'll take a while."

"How do you feel?" Elizabeth asked, sitting down next to Teyla on the examination bed. Teyla shrugged.

"I _feel_ fine," she admitted. "I did not even feel pain until Dr. Beckett put the stitches in."

"What about now?" Elizabeth asked, sensing that there was something deeper that Teyla was hiding.

"Just numb," okay, so she was doing physically fine. Which meant that it had to be something else. She was about to ask, but Beckett's arrival cut her question short.

"Alright, love, your initial scans came back clear. You're free to go; but check in with me every few hours please, just in case." she smiled.

"Thank you."

"Is she cleared for off-world duty?" Sheppard questioned impatiently.

"As long as you're careful with her."

"Sweet." She hopped off the bed and followed Sheppard out. Once they were gone, Beckett turned to Elizabeth.

"You know something about why it happened to her," he accsued. "What aren't you telling her?"

"You think I'm keeping secrets from her?"

"Well are you?"

"No! It's just that her description of the creature reminded me of something that Ronon said to me before he left."

"What did he say?" she sighed.

"Carson, I promised him that I wouldn't say anything to anyone."

"And if it costs Teyla or any of us further injury like that? What would your promise be worth then?" he paused, and when he spoke again, he was calm. "I'd bet almost anything that Ronon made you promise so that no one would get hurt." Elizabeth sighed again, forced by the doctors words to make a choice.

"This could just be a one-time thing," she said. "But if it happens again I'll tell you what he told me."

"Fair enough," he conceeded. But he couldn't help but wonder if by allowing the problem to sit, he had just made a terrible mistake.

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Ronon wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep, or how long he'd been asleep. He'd never gotten around to actually wearing the watch that Sheppard had found for him. Which wouldn't normally have been a problem; but here in this dark cell, he had no concept of time passing.

Lying there, in the cold cell, he had tried for hours to form a plan; but all had fallen short. If he had guards, it would have been completely different and not really a problem. But when he didn't know where anyone was on this ship, and the lack of guards was probably an illusion or a trap, he had no idea where to go from there. He just wasn't very creative when the situation had such an obviously overstated way out. If he had Sheppard and Teyla and McKay nothing would have been a problem; Teyla always knew where the wraith were, McKay could override anything that needed it; and Sheppard could fly them out. All he had to do was keep them alive while they did it. He realized just then how much he had really come to depend on them. He found himself suddenly wishing that he'd told them what was going on; that one of them was there with him. Even thought he was generally intreverted, even on Atlantis, he was starting to remember just how much he hated being so alone.

Suddenly, the stench of rotting flesh filled his nostrils, and he made a face. A seeker!

He rolled to his feet, and was glaring angrily at the creature when it came into view. It hissed at him, and he snarled back at it. Suddenly, it was kicked aside, and several normal wraith took it's place. The door webbing disappeared, and Ronon made a snap decision to make a run for it. But one of the wraith spoke to him.

"If you try to escape, the seekers will destroy you. Do not think that you have not seen them because they are not there. I will call every seeker on this hive down on you if you so much as blink unallowed. You know that you will never survive." Ronon shifted his weight, debating this claim. But though he hated to admit it, the wraith was right. Against dozens of seekers and other wraith, alone on a hive, he would never make it off.

"You can't kill me," he grunted, unwilling to give in. "Otherwise you wouldn't get what you want-" the wraith struck him in the face.  
"But we can make sure that you never move again. There's more then one way to kill a man, runner." it took all of Ronon's willpower not to fight them as he was led through the ship. But he couldn't afford to lose his mobility; he'd seen other prisoners tortured with that and worse, and he needed himself to be as strong as possible when the time came to get out.

He was led through the ship, until they reached what appeared to be a throne room. Ronon decided for certain then that he was on a hive ship.

The queen rose from her throne and decended the steps twoards them. She looked at Ronon, then hissed at the wraith who had brought him. They released him, and withdrew from the room, taking the seeker that had followed with them.

Once they were alone, the queen spoke.

"So," he surpressed a shudder at her voice; he was unused to dealing with queens. "You are the Satedan that ran for so long. Not quite like I'd heard." she looked pointedly at his bruised and bleeding body. "And you are also the one that the Lanteans rescued, right?"

"What do you want?"

"You already know what I want, or you wouldn't be trembling. Tell me the location of Atlantis."

"It was destoryed," he grunted, trying to resist her pressure on his mind. "Your people did it."

"My hive was never involved in that attack," she said calmly. "And from all that I've heard the city survived despite what "my" people did."

"Well you're wrong, it was destroyed. Only a few dozen made it out."

"And how would you know?"

"Everyone knows the rumors." the queen regarded him carefully for a moment.

"So tell me then, runner," she said. "If you really are not connected with them, as you claim, why are you going to such great lengths to protect them?"

"What does it matter? The second you get the information you want you'll kill me; and if you don't get what you want you still will. Might as well keep some good people safe if I'm goin' down."

"On the contrary, runner. Telling me will make your life much less painful." She was less then a foot away from him, standing over him now having forced him to his knees. He saw her stiffen suddenly, and she made a face as if smelling something bad.

"Now I know you're lying," she hissed. "I feel her echoes on you. Where is Atlantis?" Ronon gritted his teeth, trying desperately hard to resist the strength of the wraith queen. She pushed harder, seeming to strain her effort almost to the point of breaking.

"If you don't tell me," she spoke with murder in her voice, "I will follow her echoes until she leads me back to the city; and I will feed on her first."

"_NO_!" When she said that, he gave into his rage. He leaped to his feet and attacked her. She had to be talking about Teyla; she was the only one that the queen could have been able to feel. And he couldn't stand even the thought of the wraith getting to Atlantis, or Teyla, or any one of the people on Lantea.

For a queen who spent her days sharpening her mind rather then sparring, she was quick. She managed to avoid his attack, and took up a fighting stance a few meters away. Ronon wondered briefly why she didn't call in her guards or seekers; but he wasn't about to mention it. He faced off against her, feeling no pain, only anger. He made the next move.

As he fought, Ronon grudgingly admitted to himself that she had a good fighting style. Most wraith he fought moved more like him; in all honesty he preferred grappling or shooting. That was why Teyla was the only person who could beat him with her style. And the queen's was somewhat similar; more flowing and graceful; an art. There were a lot of spins involved, and he wasn't sure if those were just for flourish or actually a part of the fight. And there was also a lot of footwork.

Suddenly, in the middle of the battle, the queen turned her mind-pressing on him in full force, forcing him to come to a confused stop for a second. A second was all she needed to deliver a blow that sent him flying into the nearest wall. She stood down, watching him struggle to push himself to his feet. Her guards came in and seized him, dragging him to his feet. He made one last, half-hearted attempt to reach the queen; but they held him back easily. She mentally gave them some command, and they took him back to his cell. They threw him in and left; but after this battle Ronon was too tired and hurt to even attempt anything more. And he was angry with himself. He'd lost. The second time in a day, to a single, female wraith, and he'd lost.

Confused and tired and in pain, he rested his cheek on the cold floor, and managed to fall asleep. But after his time alone with this queen, he had no idea how he would endure the intermiable hours or weeks until he could escape or be rescued. Or was killed.

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McKay didn't want to go on this mission. In fact, by his reckoning, the mystery of Teyla's injury meant that she should still be in the infirmary, and not going off-world at all. Which meant that the team was too small and they should just scrap the whole thing and take the day off. He'd tried in the most calm, civil way he knew how, to convince both Elizabeth and Colonel Sheppard of this; expecting at least one of them to see reason. When neither did he'd given the same speech to Carson and Teyla, who also assured him that everything was fine. Which was why he was now standing there in front of the gate, waiting for Sheppard and Teyla to get there so that they could get the whole thing over with. Right now he was angrier than ever at Ronon for leaving; if he was still there he'd either make Teyla stay or be going with them; and no offense to Teyla or Sheppard or anything, but McKay felt a whole lot safer with Ronon around.

"But no, the caveman decides instead that he's bored of the city, and decides to run off to who knows where to collect wraith teeth or something.." he stopped in his muttering as his teammates finally arrived.

He couldn't help but feel sorry for Teyla when he saw her. The second she entered the room, whispers began to rise. Everyone had heard about her strange injuries, and there had been rumors spreading around the city about what had happened. He'd even heard someone say that she probably did it to herself, because she was so upset that Ronon was gone. McKay had yelled at that person.

Teyla, for her part, seemed oblivious to it all. She walked through the gateroom with the same confidence and grace that she always had, though Rodney did see a hint of sadness in her eyes. But he admired the fact that the suspicions of others seemed to mean nothing to her; and he wished that he could be as confident in himself as he pretended and his team was.

"Alright," Sheppard said when they reached the gate. "Let's go."

"You know I'm still not happy about this mission?" McKay complained.

"Yeah, what else is new?" any further conversation was cut off as they stepped through the gate.

On the other side, McKay groaned. Why was it that the powers that be always saw fit to send him to places that they knew he didn't beling, like M7G-677; even if he WAS the most qualified person to fix their equipment. But it always happened just when he wanted to be somewhere else. ANYWHERE else.

"That's nothing new for you, Rodney," John reminded him.

"True; but that goes double when there are only three of us against armies of kids. Seriously, though, why haven't you picked someone else for the team yet?" Sheppard shook his head.

"I'm not ready to replace him yet."

"I'm not saying you need to replace him, and I'm not saying you have to like it; but I'd rather be safe then sentimental. Yeah, I wish he was here, but he's not and we can't change that. So why not give someone else that same chance that we gave him?" he could see that he'd caught Sheppard off-guard. He folded his arms smugly, waiting for him to reply.

"I'm not ready yet," he repeated. It made Rodney want to scream.

"Wha? Is that all you can say?"

"It's the truth, Rodney. You'd better learn to deal with it."

"Oh, so I have to be the mature one?" he demanded, not adding the last two words on his mind, "_as usual_."

"Define "_mature_"."

"You are impossible!" he accused angrily.

"And thats something else that isn't new." McKay took a deep breath and started counting, trying his best not to lose his temper. Man, sometimes he really just wanted to deck that guy.

Walking through the woods, Rodney began to grow nervous. He glanced at Sheppard and Teyla, who strode on unconcerned.

"I think we should go back," he burst out suddenly. Sheppard rolled his eyes.

"McKay, look, everything's fine. I don't know why you have to worry so much-" anything else he had meant to say was cut off as an unearthly shriek split the air. A creature- much like the one that Teyla had described- burst from the trees. It pushed past Teyla, kicked Sheppard aside, and headed straight for Rodney. He ducked out of th eway, but felt one of the thing's claws scrape across his temple.

"_OW_!" he jerked awake and found himself tangled up in his bedsheets. He gulped at the cool air of his room, trying to regain his breath. He realized that it was morning, and shook his head, trying to clear it. That was one crazy dream.


	4. Adeena

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Chapter Three

------------

Teyla and Sheppard looked up from a perfectly normal breakfast to see a very angry McKay striding towards them. He planted himself directly in front of Teyla, crossed his arms, and glared angrily at her.

"I blame you," he said. She laughed, a little confused.

"What did I do?" she asked mildly.

"You told me about your dream, and what you said about the creature gave me a nightmare!"

"What happened?"

"It burst out of the trees, pushed you, kicked Sheppard in the stomach, and tried to grab me. It's nail... claw... things- gashed my head opened..." he could see both Sheppard and Teyla looking at him with wide eyes. He touched the side of his head and felt blood.

"Oh no!" he moaned. "I's happening to me too!"

------------

When Ronon woke up he was nearly blinded by the pain in his body. He wasn't sure what he was feeling this pain from; if it was from the seekers or the queen or some other torture that had been inflicted upon him while he slept. But he knew he was very badly hurt, beyond exhaustion; and hungry.

He rolled onto his back and tried not to scream as the pain he thought could not get any worse exploded over his body.

_"I've got to get out of here_," he thought to himself. But after that battle with the queen, he doubted himself for the first time. He would never make it off that ship alive.

After he'd laid there for a while, trying to gather the strength to get up, he heard something. He forced himself to his feet, biting his lip and trying to focus on that pain instead. Several wraith appeared at his door. He debated fighting but just as quickly dismissed the idea. He smelled seekers, and in his weakened state he'd probably get himself killed.

The wraith opened the door, shoved someone in, and left. Once they were gone, Ronon looked at his new cellmate. He was surprised to find a woman. She was small and slender and seemed young; she couldn't be far over twenty. She had long blonde hair and light skin and terribly frightened green eyes. He reached out a hand to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. She shrugged, rubbing her arms nervously against the cold. He noticed that her brown tunic and skirt were made for warm weather. Her boots, at least seemed right for the temperature. But still, she must be freezing. He didn't feel it as strongly, with all the blood rushing through his body and fueling his bruises. He wished that he still had his coat to give her.

He wished that she would talk; anything to break the silence that was dragging. He wondered if his friends on Atlantis were often annoyed with him for his silences.

"I'm Ronon," he said finally.

"Adeena," she introduced herself. Her voice was deeper than Ronon would have expected for someone of her size.

"Where are you from?" he asked, easing down agains the wall. For a minute he thought that she wouldn't answer.

"Rashan," came her timid answer, almost too soft to hear. "But we were culled."

"So was my world," Ronon said. "Almost 9 years ago." Adeena gasped.

"And they've kept you alive?" she questioned in amazement.

"I was a runner," he explained. "For seven years. But I made some friends, and they helped me. I've been living with them ever since." Adeena cocked her head in confusion, sitting back against the opposite wall, as far away from him as possible.

"Then how were you captured again?" he sighed.

"I had to leave; didn't want them to get hurt. And I had a promise to keep."

------------

Beckett was a little surprised to see Sheppard's team in the infirmary again so soon, with new injuries. This time Teyla seemed fine; but Sheppard was obviously in pain and McKay's head was bleeding.

"What did you do, get into a fight?"

"Teyla's dream creature attacked us," Sheppard grumbled.

"What?!"

"It was _MY_ dream," Rodney explained. "It kicked him and tried to grab me; but it mostly missed."

"Mostly," Beckett agreed. "And you both dreamed it?"

"No, just Rodney."

"Was Teyla in the dream?"

"Yes, but it just pushed her aside-"

"And I feel fine." Carson frowned.

"Hm. Well, let me get you boys under a scanner and see what the damage is. Have you told Elizabeth what happened?"

"No, we came straight here," McKay said.

"I see. Teyla, love, would you mind radioing and asking her to come down here at once, please?"

"Of course," her voice became a gentle murmur in the background as Beckett turned to Sheppard.

"Alright, off with your shirt and lets have a look."

"What about me?" Rodney complained.

"I already know what happened to you Rodney. Nurse, will you please start his scan and get him ready for the stitches? I'll take over in a minute." he turned back to John, who'd just gotten his shirt off, and gasped.

"What is it?" he looked down at himself, and bit back a curse. His side was covered in a dark, blotchy purple bruise.

"Oh my," the doctor breathed. Teyla finished her radio call and came back over. She stopped short at the sight of John's bruises, unable to speak for a moment.

"Alright," Beckett was back in control again, "Nurse, go get him some ice; I'll finish up Rodney."

"Yes sir," Beckett had Sheppard lay down, and took the needle from the nurse to finish Rodney's stitches.

"_OW_! Can't you put me under for this?"

"Afraid not, Rodney; I need you to be awake and lucid to explain to Elizabeth when she comes in." The nurse returned with Sheppard's ice, and started a scan on him.

"This is the weirdest thing, " he commented. "Why was I affected? I mean, it wasn't even my dream."

"I think Elizabeth has some idea," Carson said as he finished Rodney's stitches. "There you go. And here she comes." Elizabeth entered the infirmary, and froze at the sight of the team and their injuried.

"It happened again," she breathed. She'd sincerely hoped that what had happened with Teyla had been a one time thing. Carson nodded.

"Yes it did. It was McKay's dream," Rodney took the cue to explain.

"We were walking in the woods, on M7G-677; and all of a sudden it jumped out of the trees. It pushed Teyla out of it's way and kicked Sheppard in the stomach; and it tried to grab me. It missed, but it scratched me," he pointed to his head.

"And it hurt you and John both in your dream?"

"Yeah. Both from his dream."

"Now will you tell us what you know?" Carson pressed.

"Wait, you know what's been going on?" McKay demanded. Elizabeth sighed.

"No. I don't know anything about the dreams, or why you're all getting hurt in them. But I do know something about the creatures." Teyla's eyes narrowewd. "Ronon told me about them, a little bit. Teyla was the only one of you to give them a name, and she was right. They're called seekers."

"Wait, why are they after us?" John asked.

"They're not; at least, I didn't get that impression from him. I don't think they know us. They're tracking him to find the city. That's one of the reasons that he left; to throw them off and get rid of them."

"Why couldn't you tell us before?"

"I promised Ronon that I wouldn't tell anyone why he left."

"But seekers do not hunt one thing to find something else," Teyla argued. "They hunt runners, they hunt whatever their masters tell them to; but they hunt instinctively. They hunt to kill.

"But don't you think Ronon knows what he's talking about when it comes to wraith?"

"I too have dealt with seekers," Teyla said. "They killed a very dear friend of mine. Do you trust me less?"

"No, of course not. But you said yourself that it wasn't purely instinctive when it looked at you." Elizabeth reminded her.

"Fine, let us suppose that they are looking for the city; why? They hunt across worlds, between stars. The city would not be a worthwhile hunt for them."

"You said they do what they'e told," Carson said. "Maybe they were told to find the city."

"Maybe," she conceeded, but she seemed unconvinced.

"Elizabeth," Sheppard cut in. "What else did Ronon tell you?"

"Nothing I can share," she said apologetically. "And nothing that will make me let you go after him yet; for all we know he's defeated all the seekers already and is getting on with his promise."

"And what promise would that be?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that either."

------------

Ronon found himself groaning awake once again, and he shifted his sore muscles. This last sleep had actually been somewhat refreshing; at the very least it cleared his head. He wondered how long he'd been asleep.

Looking around, he spotted Adeena, still leaning against the wall farthest from him, and as far from the door as possible. He grinned; this girl wasn't taking any chances.

After a few minutes he noticed something in the room that hadn't been there before; a tray of food. He rose painfully to his feet, driven by hunger more then caution. The contense of the tray, as unidentifiable as it was, didn't look too revolting; andn it didn't smell or taste poisoned. Why would the wraith poison him, anyways? They wouldn't kill their own food before they got a chance to feed. And even if they had somehow drugged it, which he found unlikely, he was beyond the point where he cared. He'd eaten far worse as a runner. But he still felt obligated to make sure Adeena was alright first.

"You hungry?" he asked. She shook her head, curling into a tight ball. He sighed. "You should eat."

"No," her voice was barely above a whisper. In Ronon's experiance, there were only two kinds of people who spoke that way all the time; people who were guilty of something, or people who were terrified. He was certain that Adeena fell into that second catagory.

Annoyed, he shrugged.

"Suit yourself," he muttered. He wolfed down as much of the meal as he needed, but didn't finish it. Eventually the girl would need to eat, keep up her strength, if she wanted to survive.

"Ronon," he looked up in surprise when she said his name. "Are we going to die?" he shrugged.

"Everybody's gotta die sometime," he said. "But when I do, it won't be on a hive."

"If you escape," she began hesitantly, "will you find my father? I want him to know what happened to me."

"Where is he?"

"He was off-world during the attack." Ronon softened a little bit, feeling sorry for her.

"Yeah, I can do that." he said. "But I can do better. When I get off this ship, I'll take you with me."

"You would do that for me?"

"Sure; no one deserves to be stuck here. But when the time comes I'm gonna need your help." Adeena nodded, surprise still evident in her gaze.

For a while they remained quiet, Ronon re-evaluating the possibilities of escape for the both of them. Adeena was lost in her own thoughts, staring at the toes of her boots. Ronon couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in her head; she was so radically different then anyone else he had ever known. He realized how badly he wanted to understand her.

After a while, he saw her eyeing the tray of food, and he pushed it over to her.

"Hungry yet?"

"Thank you," she said softly, accepting it.

"Sure." He returned to his almost comfortable place against the wall, and settled in to wait for the wraith to return.

Over the next couple of days (Ronon assumed) that they were trapped, Adeena relaxed, and she and Ronon started to become friends. They talked about their friends, in an attempt to keep their minds off the current situation; and Adeena quit acting like a scared rabit. Maybe it wasn't the easy friendship that Ronon had slid into with Sheppard and Teyla and even McKay; but for him it was enough.

The wraith hadn't returned since they'd brought Adeena, except to deliever food, which was how Ronon had begun to tell time, figuring two meals per 24 hour period. But as glad as they were that they hadn't returned or tried to kill them, Ronon was getting restless. He didn't understand these particular wraith at all, and it made planning their escape difficult, because he had no way to predict what would happen. Adeena saw that it was frustrating him and tried to take his mind off it for a while, asking him questions about his friends and their world (which he answered selectively, protecting the existance of Atlantis). But eventually she ran out of questions about them, and found a new subject.

"How old were you?" the question distracted his agitated pacing and he looked at her in confusion. Embarassed, she lowered her eyes.

"I meant when you were first running." he had to think about it.

"Almost 22," he paused. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen." He shouldn't have been surprised. She didn't look or act much older; when he'd first seen her and pegged her in her twenties he was being generous. But she was just a scared girl, on most worlds considered an adult but still trying to figure out what that meant.

"Do you have any family besides your dad?" he asked, her awkward attempt to help him making him do the same. And he liked her voice.

"I had 2 brothers," she said, "They were a couple years older then me. My mother died a few years ago, and they've always protected me."

"What happened to them?" she shrugged.

"I don't know. They defended me during the attack, but there was an explosion, and we were beamed up by a dart. When I woke up I was alone, and the wraith brought me here." she stopped for a moment, willing back tears, Then she looked up at Ronon.

"What about you?" she asked. "What was your family like?"

"They were average to look at, I guess. My mom, my dad, and a kid sister. My mom was beautiful. She loved gardens and flowers and everything that grew. The city was hard for her. So my dad bought her a manor house in the country; lots of land and big gardens," he cleared his throat. "She was a refugee, a survivor from another world. But when my father met her, he said that he knew she was the only woman he'd ever love. Just about the only time he ever showed emotion. But he died in battle, and my mom was taken." he stopped talking, as if suddenly aware that he had given up more of his past then he was quite comfortable with.

"What about your sister?" she asked. "What was she like?" he was amazed at how comfortable he was telling Adeena all this.

"She was about 13 years younger then me; but she was cute. Terrified of storms; I used to have to sit with her and hold her till she fell asleep. But she died in the culling I was taken in, I think. I miss her." Adeena smiled a little.

"You remind me of my brothers," she said. "I know that you'll get us out."

"I hope I don't disappoint you."


	5. Wise Woman

_Author's Note: I am not quite happy with how this chapter came out. I'm not sure how well I got them in character for this, so review and let me know how I did._

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**Chapter Four**

------------

Sheppard and McKay were lounging around the control room, waiting for Elizabeth and Teyla. Well, McKay was working, waiting for Elizabeth and Teyla; Sheppard was hanging out, bugging McKay and spying on Elizabeth and Teyla. It was several days after Rodney's dream, and the first time the two women had spoken since. Teyla had been furious with Elizabeth for not telling them about the seekers Ronon had spoken of; and now was the first time that her friends had convinced her to talk to Weir since that day. They'd gone into Elizabeth's office nearly an hour ago, and hadn't come out yet. And they looked pretty upset.

"What do you think is goin' on in there?" John sat on the edge of Rodney's deske. McKay rolled his eyes.

"I don't know, maybe they're actually talking. It's a past-time of most humans, you know. And _some_ do it overexcessively in my ear while _I'm trying to work_!" John ignored the pointed remark.

"I don't know; they both seem pretty ticked." scraps of their conversation floated to Johns ears.

"...it was _killing _me to think that he abandoned us!"

"Teyla, I'm sorry!"

"Why would you promise to lie to us...?" he winced. Make that argument.

"Sounds like a catfight in there," Rodney muttered. John glared at him.

"I thought you were working."

"Yeah, well you distracted me. I wonder how much longer they'll be at it?"

"Hopefully not too long; Teyla and I have a bet riding on the luch menu today, and I don't want to be late."

"You're betting on lunch? What are you betting?"

"If I guessed right, I get to beat her sparring, free win. If she was right, then I owe her one jumper ride wherever she wants."

"You'd take her wherever she wanted anyways; why would you make a bet like that?"

"Because I talked it over with the guys in the kitchen, and I know that I'll win." he shrugged. "It was just something stupid to keep our minds off Ronon. Especially her; I think she's taking it was harder then she's showed."

"She's showin' Elizabeth now," Rodney whispered, watching their argument throught the glass walls of Weir's office in fascination. Sheppard whistled.

"No kidding." he'd seen them both shout, but never at each other before--- that was something that they usually reserved for him--- but they looked about ready to bite each other's heads off; and it was a little scary.

Their argument seemed to end as abruptly as it had started. Teyla stormed out, and Elizabeth collapsed into her chair and let her head sink slowly into her hands. John and Rodney shared a look of unspoken agreement.

"Ready for some damage control?"

"I'll take Weir," Rodney volunteered, choosing the woman who held less potential for bodily harm. He stood up and went into Weir's office. Sighing, praying that she wouldn't deck him, John went over to Teyla.

You wanna talk about it?" she shrugged.

"Maybe in a little bit." he nodded.

"Okay. You still up for lunch? My treat either way; even if I win the bet." Teyla managed a small smile.

"Thank you, John."

Sheppard and Teyla reached the mess, and got in line. John was already congradulating himself on winning the bet.

"Congradulations to me, for guessing our wonderful meal to be turkey sandwiches and apple pie..." he trailed off when he saw what everyone else was eating. "Tuna sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies? How did you even _guess_ that? I talked to the guys in the kitchen and everything; and they said they'd make sure the bet paid out..." he stopped when he relized what he was saying.

"You tried to convice them to make your meal?" Teyla asked, faintly amused She didn't seem to be upset with his cheating.

"I really wanted that free win," he pouted. "But I guess all the guys in the kitchen like you better." he tilted his head. "But you are prettier then me." she rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder, directing him towards an empty table. They sat down, and for a few minutes were quiet, both ravenously hungry.

"So is it later yet?" he inquired after a while. She sighed.

"_Colonel_..."

"Hey, it's John, remember? And I think that now is later, so what happened?"

"You already know what happened, and why. There's nothing more to say." he frowned.

"You've gotta understand why she did it."

"But I don't have to accept it. It was killing me to think that he left to get away from us; and if it it didn't, the dreams would have. They still might."

"Don't say that; Doc'll have it all figured out by the time you and Elizabeth apologize." he took a bite of his cookie. "Who knows? he might even find a way to reverse the injuries." She didn't answer, clearly done with the subject.

"Were you serious about the bet?" she asked instead he shrugged.

"Sure. Where do you want to go, the mainland?"

"No, I want to go offworld." suddenly he was very nervous.

"Why does this feel suspiciously like one of those times where I am asked to do something that I probably shouldn't?"

"John, take me to find Ronon." he choked on his cookie, crumbs spraying frim his mouth. When the fit calmed down, he realized that he'd grabbed her wrist and was squeezing it, very tightly. He released her like he'd been shocked, and took a long gulp of his drink. Then he replied.

"What did you say?"

"Help me find him."

"Okay, when I said "jumper ride anwywhere," it really meant "jumper ride to _the mainland_." That's not the mainland."

"Then next time you should say that." man, she was devious!

"No, there will be no "next time." I will never make a bet with you ever again!"

"John, we have to help him."

"Ronon's always done pretty good on his own."

"And if it was just one seeker following him, I would let him finish it on his own. But Elizabeth said he was sure that there will several. And if there are more then one, then they are commanded, which means it does not end with those several. There are hunters and warriors and hives and queens; they are serious about what they want."

"But why didn't they use them last time, when those people "sacraficed" him to them?"

"Becasue they called them." He'd forgotten about that part. By then he knew that he wanted to go as much as she did, but he felt uneasy, like they shouldn't do it yet.

"Alright, even so, you know this is crazy. Even if I was agreeing to this- which I'm not yet- you know exactly how Elizabeth will react.

"I am not asking Elizabeth," She reminded him.

John was genuinely torn. He understood everything that Teyla was saying, and agreed. But he really didn't want to go against Elizabeth, who said that this was what Ronon had wanted. And in the end he decided that the risk outweighed the possibility of finding him.

"No," he said, rising to go.

"John," mentally he groaned. She knew that she knew how to get to him, and that she'd saved one last arguement for him."

"Yeah?"

"One of my closest friends was killed by a seeker, even though it was almost dead itself. I will not let that happen again." he sat down again.

"Okay, lets say that we were going to go try to find him, and with our one little jumper destroy the hive that wants him." he shrugged. "How do you fight a seeker?"

------------

"Tell me more about what happened to you before you got captured," Adeena askd Ronon. She was intreagued by his life, how he had survived all that he had. And he suspected she was also keeping him talking about his life so that she wouldn't have to tell him anything about hers. He guessed that there was some painful memory that she didn't want him to share. He felt bad for her, and decided to appease her.

"I left home to get the seekers away from my friends," he explained. "But it's been so long since I dealt with them, I got caught. But before I fought them, I went to an old friend for advice. My people called her the wise woman, but her name is Lena. I needed her help."

"Why did her opinion mean so much to your people?"

"Because she can see bits of things in other places."

"How?" Adeena's voice held a tone of unabashed wonder.

"I don't know; I don't think it's really anything magical; I think she has some kind of device that lets her see what's going on on different worlds."

"Is such a thing even possible?"

"When you have friends like mine, you come to expect stuff like that." he explained, smiling to himself. It was strange how many things he'd lumped together when he lived on Sateda; he didn't explain them as magic, he'd classified them as unexplainable and assumed that that would never change. And since he'd gone to Atlantis he was finding that all the things he'd thought were just mysteries forever really had explanations. Even more amazing was that he was starting to understand them.

He realized that he hadn't spoken in a long time, and he turned back to Adeena. But it seemed that she was done questioning him for now, having put him in a better mood; and now she had returned to her own mind. Smiling to himself, Ronnon put his hands behind his head and leaned back, and started to plan again.

------------

"She's not gonna buy it," Sheppard tried for the hundredth time ot convince Teyla. "And even if she does, we'll never convince McKay to come along."

"We don't need to convince him to look for Ronon," she said. "Only to come with us to New Teranus for a few hours." John grinned.

"You know, as much as I hate doing this--- lying to Elizabeth and going after Ronon like this when he's probably alright and just waiting for us to come so that he can hit me--- I admire your deviousness. I'm very impressed."

"Thank you. And I hate how we are doing it too; but I am not going to let him face this alone. Not after all the years he ran."

"Yeah, I get that." he sighed. "Alright, now get outta here and don't look suspicious." she nodded, and wrapped him a quick hug.

"Thank you for doing this for him," she whispered. "I know it's a risk."

"This is for you, Teyla." he took a deep breath, and as she walked away he pasted on his happy-go-lucky I'm-not-doing-anything-wrong face, and walked into Elizabeth's office. She seemed to have gotten over her fight with Teyla the day before; it had taken that long for Teyla to convince him to go through with this. Grateful that they had also given Elizabeth time to let go of her anger, went in.

She smiled when he came in.

"Good morning, John."

"Morning," he smiled back. "What've you got planned for the team today?"

"Nothing. Today is all off-world team's day off.

"Oh, right! Well, if that's the case, me and Teyla were thinking of going and checking on the Teranians; she's been over there a few times to help out with the new settlement. We were gonna drag McKay along to make sure that all their equiptment is still functioning properly." Elizabeth nodded.

"Sure go ahead. Rodney will probably just spend the day harassing Zelanka, anyways."

"And we kinda want a jumper," he admitted.

"A jumper? Why?"

"Well I kinda lost this bet with Teyla, and she won a free jumper ride to anywhere off-duty. I'm kind hoping I can talk her into calling it even." Weir laughed at him.

"While that may be skirting the fine lines of your bet, you can have the jumper. Don't say I didn't warn you if she punches you in the face!" he grinned.

"I'll take my chances. See you later!"

"Bye, John." He left, and found Teyla just leaving her quarters, in her full Athosian wardrobe. A little surprised, he cut right to the chase.

"Alright, so she bought it. Doesn't mean McKay will go for it."

"As I said before, he does not need to."

"Okay, this is a one time thing unless we find something important; got it?"

"Colonel, I understand." he wished she would use his name.

"Off the clock," he reminded her.

"No, we aren't. This is a mission."

"_Unauthoroized mission_," he grumbled under his breath, following her towards the jumper bay. They snagged McKay on their way down.

Once they were on New Teranus, Sheppard turned the jumper around and dialed a new address. McKay was instantly suspicious.

"Where are we going?" he demanded.

"Relax, Rodney," John soothed. "We need to make an extra little stop; I owe Teyla that jumper ride."

"How did you get the address, by the way?" Teyla asked quietly.

"I have my ways." Now Rodeny was really suspicious.

"Okay, I was to know right now what the heck you guys are up to!" Then is eyes widened. "Oh, you're planning something devious, aren't you? I want to know what it is! And where are we going?"

"Actually, the devious part was getting the jumper," John mused thoughtfully.

"Just tell me what we're doing!"

"We're looking for Ronon."

"WHAT?!"

"Hey, this is Teyla's idea; I'm just her designated driver."

"So why am I here?"

"Because we need you, Rodney."

"Well, yeah! But we've been upset that he's gone for weeks. Why did you decide to do this now?"

"Because he is being hunted by seekers." Teyla explained. "And because I had another dream last night." Sheppard's head snapped around towards her.

"You didn't tell me that part."

"It does not matter; I already knew that we were going to look for him."

"Well what happened in this dream?" McKay asked. "In the last one you met him by accident; you weren't running off after him."

"The last one did not have him being fed upon," she snapped. "And since our dreams have all been coming true, I fear that this one was more as well. We may already be too late."

------------

Ronon felt as if he had been up for many hours. It was impossible to tell in the dark, but he guessed that he'd been up almost a whole day, a surprising amount of which had been spent talking to Adeena. Now that she was finally comfortable, she could barely stop talking. He guessed that she was used to being with her brothers, and was lonely without them. But he also realized that most of what he thought about her had come from spectulation; she'd done a remarkably well at keeping her secrets.

He sighed and glanced over at her. The poor girl had fallen asleep about an hour ago, and was now snoring softly. He grinned. It was amazing how she'd changed in the time that he'd known her. He found himself hoping that he could bring her back to Atlantis with him; he'd bet that everyone would like her. And who knew Maybe she knew of more worlds that he and Teyla didn't.

His eyes grew soft as he thought of Teyla and everyone else on the city. He missed them; he missed her. He'd come to define his home not by where he was or by a gate address, but where his team was. And that meant Teyla more then anyone else. She was the one he knew best, the one that understood him more then maybe anyone else he'd ever known. He wondered if she knew why he'd left, that he hadn't wanted to go, to leave her or hurt her. Probably not. He hadn't given her reason to think anything different.

"What're you thinking 'bout?" Adeena mumbled sleepily from her corner. Ronon glanced at her.

"Home," he said simply.

"Home is where you feel happy and safe and loved," he wondered if she would have said the same thing if she were fully conscious.

"It's what you're willing to fight for," he said softly, and Adeena smiled.

"That too." she drifted back off into dreams.

------------

"So are you sure that this is the world that he came to?" McKAy asked Sheppard. He shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Don't ask me how I got the address."

"Trust me, I won't." They landed the jumper and Teyla took the lead. Next to Ronon, she was the best tracker on their team. They figured she could track him.

They hadn't walked for long when they heard something ahead of them. They froze, and for a moment just listened. They relaxed the tiniest bit when they recognized the sound. Someone was singing.

They continued forward cautiously, until they reached a clearing. In the clearing stood a little house, and in front of it stood a woman. It had been her voice that they'd heard. She smiled at them, and the look in her eyes told them thta she had known they were coming, or seen them before they'd seen her. At any rate she didn't seem at all surprised.

"Welcome, travelers," she called to them. "My name is Lena. All who find my house may have rest here."

"We didn't come to stay," Sheppard started to explain.

"Why have you come then, if you odo not seek rest?"

"We are looking for a friend of ours," Teyla toook over. "Ronon Dex. Do you know him?" The woman frowned.

"Your friend was here," she said slowly. "But he is gone. Where he is now is... unclear."

"Tell us what you know," Teyla begged.

"He left your world for two reasons," she replied. "To protect you and your people from the seekers, and to fulfill a promise to a dear friend." McKay frowned.

"Did he do all that yet?"

"No. His promise remains unfulfilled; and he is in the hands of the wraith. But I am only shown what is, not what will be."

"You are a seer," Teyla realized.

"After a fashion. But it conditional." She paused. "You must hurry, if you wish to save him."

"Thanks," Sheppard said as they turned to go.

"And Teyla," she turned back, surprised. "Your dreams may seem like enemies, but they can help you find him. Don't fear them." Teyla bowed her head.

"Thank you." the woman watched until they had disappeared into the trees. Then she turned and went into her house. As the door closed, the little house disappeared, leaving only a faint mist behind.

------------

Ronon heard the wraith before Adeena did. When they reached their cell, he was standing between her and the door. The one that seemed to be the leader hissed at him.

"We want the girl, not you. Move aside." Ronon didn't move.

"Make me," he growled.

"Don't tempt me, runner." He stayed frozen in place. The wraith raised his arm to hit him, but Adeena stood up.

"Don't hurt him," she said, her voice steady even though her body was shaking. "You need him if you want me." Ronon was surprised; he wasn't used to other people protecting him. But he could see the determination in her eyes, and it reminded him sharply of Teyla. She let the wraith take her away.

After they left, one of the seeker took up a position outside his door. He tried to ignore it, but the smell, and the raspy sound of it's breathing, grated on his nerves. He glared at it.

"Get away," he told it irritably. It's breahting changed to a snuffling noise, like it was tring to smell him. He frowned.

"What do you want?" he demanded when it kept doing it. He didn't expect it to answer; he'd never heard them make any noise besides hissed and and growls and shrieks. And annoying sniffing.

"Runner," it rasped, licking its lips with a long tongue. It sniffed again, and grinned. "Echoes." Could they smell echoes?

"Hey, you just worry about me, alright?" but he was getting worried about these particular seekers. They seemed intellegent, which wad very bad, It was hard enough to fight them when they didn't have thatkind of brains; but having smart ones was going to make them that much more difficult.

For a long time the thing just sat there, sniffing. Finally losing patience Ronon stalked over to the door. The thing backed up a few feet but then continued sniffing once it was out of his reach. Ronon growled at it and then sat down again. He wondered what it had meant by echoes. Both the seeker and the queen had used it; and he'd assumed from the context that the queen had been talking about Teyla. But what did it even mean? He'd never heard her use it before; and without her he had no point of reference about such things; they'd never used it before he'd lived on Atlantis. He would have to ask her one day.

After a while, the wraith brought Adeena back. She seemed unharmed, and he guessed that she hadn't struggled or attacked anyone, like he would have. When the wraith left, the seeker left, and they were once again alone.

"What did they do to you?" He asked. SHe shrugged.

"They just talked to me, asked me questions. I thought that they were going to feed on me; but they didn't."

"Did they do anything to hurt you?"

"No," she answered too quick, then changed the subject. "I think that I found something that might help us escape."

"Really?" he leaned forward a bit, interested.

"Well, not out of the cell," she amended. "And not if you can't kill a seeker."

"I've done it before," he said, referring to both escaping the cell and killing a seeker.

"Good..." she explained her plan, and he smiled a bit. It could work; and other scents would cover up theirs so the seekers would not be able to track them far. It was a good plan, and one that he was more then ready to execute. But there was one thing that he'd come to especially appreciate during his capture, since he no longer had it.

"Teyla's gift would really be helpful with this," he said. "She'd be able to keep the seekers away completely."

"I thought that they weren't intellegent enough to be commanded by anyone but their masters; they're not opened to it."

"Yeah, maybe. but I don't think these are normal; they're kind of smart. One of them talked to me."

"It spoke to you?" she questioned. "I didn't think that they were capable of it, what did it say?"

"Just two words; runner and echoes. But still..."

"That's not normal," she agreed. "But even so, do you think they'd be opened to her? I'd think that if they're intellegent they'd be even less opened."

"I don't think it matters. If she was here, Teyla would make them listen." Adeena abruptly changed the subject.

"Is she the one you made the promise to?" she asked.

"What?" the question caught him completely off-guard.

"The firts time we talked, do you remember? You said you left your world to protect your friends from the seekers, and because you had a promise to keep. Was it a promise to Teyla?" it surprised Ronon that he had to think hard to remember what he had said.

"No," he finally answered. "It wasn't Teyla."

"Who then? Someone from your homeworld; your family, your wife..."

"She might as well have been."

"You didn't mention her when you talked about your home before." she commented softly.

"You didn't ask." But she was right; he hadn't thought of Meleina since he'd been captured. He'd barely even thought of Sateda. His mind had most often been on the city back home.

"You just don't seem sure it's for her."

"Were you this nosey at home?" he snapped "Or is it just with me?" They were quiet for a minute, but Ronon finally broke the silence.

"You know you're the second person who's said that to me since I left the city?" he asked. "The wise woman told me that I had to decide if I was keeping a promise to an old friend or making a promise to a new one."

"Have you figured it out yet?" her hesitancy was apparent in her tone. Ronon sighed and shook his head.

"I'm not sure." Until Lena had said it, he hadn't even realized that his heart was torn But he knew that he should probably figure it out soon.


	6. Dream Feeder

_Author's Note: This is one of my favorite chapters of this story, and was one of the most fun to write. It is a little short, but it's intense. There is Teyla whump :)_

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Chapter Five

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"You did what?!" Elizabeth demanded of Sheppard's team. John cringed.

"Yeah, sorry about that. A promise is a promise."

"You _promised_ to leave him alone."

"Technically, you promised that," Rondey corrected. "And talking to this woman that he went to get advice from isn't the same thing as bothering him." She glared at him. "Hey, I was upset about it too! But they had a really good reason."

"And just what would that be?"

"The wraith have him." Elizabeth felt like all the air had just been sucked out of her lungs.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, pretty darn." for a minute she just held her head in her hands. In an indirect way, this really was her fault. If she'd told them what was going on right away, as soon as Teyla had gotten hurt...

"Do you know where he is?" she asked. finally. John shrugged helplessly.

"Lena didn't know; only that he was captured." Elizabeth sighed heavily.

"Alright. I guess if he's been captured then all bets are off. We need to find him."

"He is on a hive," Teyla said softly. "There is nothing we can do for him until they exit hyperspace."

"How do you know?" Rodney questioned.

"Because I dreamed it."

------------

Ronon and Adeena sat together, waiting for the wraith to return.

"Why do you think that they're leaving us alone now?" Adeena asked softly.

"Deena, they just took you a little while ago."

"But that was the only time. I thought they'd be back for me by now. And you've been here much longer; they've only come for you once, right? What are they saving us for?"

"They still want information from me. Maybe they figure having you here will make it easier for them to get what they want," he shrugged. "I don't get these wraith at all." Adeena laughed softly.

"And normally you don't have a problem with that?"

"When you run as long as I did, you learn to understand 'em." he sighed. "But this hive is weird."

"Don't worry about it," she whispered sleepily, leaning her head on his chest. "We won't be here much longer." they didn't say anything else, but Ronon was amazed at Adeena's change since the day they'd met. The first few days, she'd been so scared that she could barely speak her own name. But earlier, she'd stood up for him against the wraith; and she'd come back confident, and with a plan to help them get out. He hoped she wasn't changing like this just to die on this hive.

------------

Teyla cautiously peeked around the corner, and seeing no one crept further into the hive ship. Everything was so real and so vivid that she almost forgot she was dreaming. She'd decided to take Lena's word about her dreams, and see how they helped. She searched urgently for Ronon, navigating the corridors of the hive with more caution then a dream constituted.

Finally, she came to a room full of cocoons. She checked them all searching for that face she would know, for that one man she would recognize. And just when she had begun to give up hope, she found him. Her face broke into a weary grin, and she wished that it was more then a dream, that she could rescue him now and bring him home. She sighed.

"I'll be back for you," she whispered, kissing his forehead gently. Then she returned to the corridors. She knew that she should wake herself up from the dream; it would be safer, and she had found him. But they needed to know where that ship was going. She couldn't stop yet.

She guessed wrong on the direction to the control room, and ended up instead in the throne room. The queen was there, her back to the door, staring at a huge holographic map that displayed the ship's course and destination. But she must have heard Teyla come in, because she turned around.

"How did you get in here?" she demanded. Teyla didn't answer. Her eyes flicked between the queen and the map, memorizing the ship's course and destination. SHe saw the queen tense, and she snarled angrily.

"Who are you? Why is he protecting you?" this dream was starting to become too frighteningly real, she had to get out of it.

The queen was not interested in letting her go, however. With speed thast surprised Teyla, she leaped forward and grabbed her throat, and slammed her other hand into Teyla's chest, to feed.

Teyla wrenched herself awake, a bloodcurdling scream ripping from her throat. That had been far too real; she had felt every second of it.

Her cries drew Colonel Sheppard, as well as a security team and Dr. Beckett. They all crowded into her room, looking for danger. She grabbed Sheppar'd shirt and hauled him close and clung to him.

"You were screamin' bloody murder, Teyla! What happened?" She held him tighter, and he awkwardly put an arm around her. She couldn't stop crying.

"John, it was terrible."

"Hey, it's alright; you're okay now." she shook her head.

"She almost killed me!" he looked helplessly at Carson, but the doctor didn't know what to do, either.

"Who tried to kill you?" John questioned lamely.

"The queen." she gasped. At that point, Sheppard ordered the security team out; but he and Beckett remained to try to calm her down.

"Teyla, everything's okay," John soothed her, Beckett nodded.

"Aye, love; it was just a dream." Teyla released John and sat up straight. She tore the neck of her shirt until she revealed the feeding mark on her chest. It took Carson a few seconds to recover.

"Alright, we need to get her down to the infirmary. Now!"

------------

John waited out Carson's agonizing silence as he examined and calmed Teyla. At the end of it, he wasn't sure if he'd been waiting for minutes or hours. He glanced at his watch and was amazed that the whole thing had taken place in under 15 minutes.

Elizabeth had been informed of the situation, and had been in the infirmary when they'd gotten there. She and John had waited impatiently for the doctor to finish his work, but he wouldn't say a word until he'd administered Teyla with a heavy sedative. Then he drew them aside.

"Did it get anything?" Sheppard asked softly. Carson shook his head.

"I don't think so. She seems to have pulled herself out of the dream before the creature actually began to feed; she was slow enough that she got the feeding mark, but nothing else." he paused. "Although her blood is showing a concentration of the enzyme."

"Is that even possible?" Elizabeth asked. "I mean, gettinig cuts and bruises from the dreams is one thing; but to actually have enough contact to let the enzyme be administered?"

"I'm completely certain that she didn't hurt her more then the feeding mark and a bruise on her neck; she didn't take any of her life. As to how it is possible... Well, I just don't know." Elizabeth sighed. More trouble because of her failure to speak.

"What was she doing in there, anyways?"

"She was probably looking for Ronon," John answered. Elizabeth and Beckett both stared at him in confusion. He sighed.

"The woman we met today, she told her that the dremas could help her find him."

"So whatever she's dreaming is real somewhere?"

"How should I know? Look, I think the only person who can answer any of these questions is Ronon."

"How are you going to find him?" Elizabeth asked. "You don't even know if he's still alive."

"Yeah," Sheppard looked over at Teyla. "But she does. She went dream fishin' to find out where he is; and I know she did. When she wakes up, I'm going to go get him." he sat down in a chair by her bed.

Elizabeth watched them sadly; Teyla pale and peaceful, a dark purple bruise disfiguring her throat and a red feeding mark on her chest. John, sitting caringly and protectively by her side, holding her hand until she woke up. The galaxy could not have chosen a stranger, or better alliance.

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_A/N: The rest of the story IS finished, I promise you; but I'm in the process of re-formatting it, and so posting the rest could take anywhere from a day or two to a week or two. But in the meantime, tell me what you think. I welcome all reviews :D_


	7. Trust Me

**Chapter 6**

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It had been one of the harder days of John Sheppard's life. Because of the shock her body had endured and the nature of her injuries--- even though it was absolutely certain that none of her life had been taken--- Beckett had kept her pumped full of sedatives all day. He didn't want her to wake up and freak out, which was understandable.

John had insisted on staying with her the whole time, but as the hours passed and Dr. Beckett wouldn't let her wake up he found the wait agitating. But he was determined to stay, and once she told him where to go, he would rescue Ronon and bring him back. And give that queen something to remember them by.

He was there when Teyla woke up.

"John?" she rasped, her throat dry. He smiled.

"Good morning, sleepy," he said. "Well, it's practically goodnight. You've been out for a while."

"Why?" Worry crept into her eyes.

"Carson wanted you to rest; it was a close call you had there." Teyla looked down at herself, her hands, and saw that she was still the same.

"Don't worry, she didn't get any of you. Doc checked you out, and you're fine."

"Thank him for me," she murmured, closing her eyes again. Funny how someone who'd just slept for a day could be so tired.

"Hey, Teyla, stay with me a minute, alright? I need you to tell me where to find Ronon."

"He's still alive," she breathed, drifting further and further away. Sheppard took her hand.

"Come on, I need to bring him back." But she was already asleep. He sighed. It seemed he had a few more hours to wait.

------------

Teyla woke up again about 8 hours later, around 3 in the morning. John had fallen asleep beside her bed, and the infirmary lights were dim. It took a moment for her fuzzy memories to come in, but when they did she checked herself once more to see if the queen had been able to feed. But she looked no different.

Careful not to disturb the Colonel, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her bare feet landed silently on the cold floor, but as she turned she came face to face with Dr. Beckett.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" he asked in a suspicious whisper. Caught in the act, she maintained a guilty silence.

"Aha, I thought so. Back in bed, right now."

"Carson..."

"No excused; you came this close to getting killed. Back in bed, and that's an order." she did as she was told.

"How long must I stay here?" she asked.

"Until I say you can go." they heard Sheppard groan.

"How's anybody supposed to sleep with you two going at it?" he mumbled. Carson and Teyla shared a smile.

"Sorry, son." Beckett said. "She just needed a little reminding on who is the doctor." John looked at her.

"Have you been gettin' that mixed up again?"

"John!" she laughed.

"Sorry. So are you awake for real, or are you gonna space out on me again?" she blushed.

"John, I'm sorry-"

"No big deal," he brushed it off. "So how did your dream-search go?" she grew serious.

"I found him," she said. "And I know where the hive is going."

"Great! Just give me the address and I'll be waiting for them. We could have Ronon back by dinner."

"I'm coming with you," she said, starting to rise again,

"Not in your condition," Carsono pushed her gently back down.

"My "_condition_"?" her voice rose an octive, "You told me that she didn't hurt me-"

"I never said that; she didn't feed on you. But she gave you a pretty good dose of the enzyme, and all of that is still in your system. If you leave..." he shook his head. But Sheppard's forehead creased in a thoughtful frown.

"How bad will her withdrawal be?" he questioned. Carson thought for a second.

"Shouldn't be too terribly bad, all things considered. But it really would be best to give her a few half-doses before we take her off it. Why, what were you... oh no, no son. It won't happen."

"Doc, you said yourself she's fine."

"Not to go off-world."

"Let's call Elizabeth down here and see what she thinks then." The doctor conceeded, certain that Weir would side with him. John wa confident that she would let him decide. But being the negotiator that she was, Elizabeth made them both explain themselves. She seemed to be leaning towards Carson's point of view. Then, Teyls spoken up.

"I know how to find him, and I know what we're dealing with. They need me to find him." Elizabeth wavered.

"I'm not sure..."

"Elizabeth, please trust me."

"How long until they drop out of hyperspace?"

"About 3 hours." Elizabeth sighed, looking between her three friends. Forced with this choice there was only on thing that she could do...

------------

Half an hour later, 4 people sat in a jumper, awaiting the hive. McKay, after much time complaining about getting up for a mission at such an ungodly hour, had finally gotten around to agreeing to come. Elizabeth had given in to either Sheppard's plea's or Teyla's request to trust her, and had let Teyla herself decide, informing Dr. Beckett that Teyla had chose to remain with them and that they really didn't haev the power to keep her there. And so, the good doctor had volunteered his services to them for the mission, to keep and eye on Teyla and to treat Ronon if necessary.

"You'd better be right," McKay cautioned Teyla through a yawn as they came out of the gate. But they knew he just wanted to have something to say. Theyh all hid smiles.

"Alright, I suggest you relax before we do this," Sheppard said. Then he muttered something else under his breath. "_This is gonna be a long mission_."


	8. Seeker

_Author's Note: Here comes a bit of a twist..._

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**Chapter 7**

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Ronon's internal clock woke him up at what he assumed was morning. Adeena was still asleep, smiling softly in her dreams. He decided to give her a few more minutes to sleep.

As he waited those few minutes, he ran through everything over in his head again. But he couldn't help but wonder if they were doing it just to die. He didn't care so much about himself other then he wished he could have explained it to his friends, and that they would know what happened to him. But he didn't want that for Adeena. She was young, she deserved more then this. She'd finally begun to find herself, and he didn't want her to pay for that with her life.

He woke her with a soft tap on her shoulder, and she sat up instantly, her eyes bright and alert. No trace of weariness showed in her face. That part of her impressed him; she could sleep for two minutes or 10 hours, and could wake up the same, perfectly alert.

"Are you ready?" he whispered. She nodded, her eyes showing no fear, only anticipation.

"Are you sure you want to do it?" he pressed. "It's gonna be dangerous for you."

"I don't want to die on this hive any more then you do," she said. "Especially without even trying. I can do this."

"Alright. Remember, don't got too far."

"I know."

"Okay." he slipped a knife fre of his hair, and aimed it carefully at the door mechinism on the wall across from the door of their cell. he tried to remember exactly which position had made it open the time he and his team had been captured with Aiden. Then, he let the knife fly. There was a second of silence, then contact. The webbing shuddered, then receeded into the wall.

"Okay, go!" Adeena slipped out of the cell and started down the hallway. Ronon hid himself just inside the doorway of the cell, pressing himself aganst the wall; and he waited.

As they'd expected, Adeena's escape was soon noticed, and she was caught. The wraith brought her back to the cell and took her indside, the seeker trailing them like a lost dog. It was still making that odd snuffling noise, and Ronon hoped it didn't know he was there. He tensed as one by one the wraith followed Adeena into the cell, probably to make sure that she would stay there this time. He forced himself to wait for the seeker to follow. When it finally shuffled through the doorway, he stepped out in front of it and attacked. He knew that the other wraith wouldn't step in until one or the other was dead; and the entire plan depended on being able to defeat the seekers.

The creature reacted quicker then he would have liked, lashing out at his ribs and chest, as if sensing that they were the weakest. As he'd known, the other wraith did nothing, just watched and waited for their seeker to win. If the creature was willing to do the dirty work, who were they to step in on it's victory?

It was in that moment that Adeena showed herself the most. The wraith were ignoring her in favor of the battle going on, and using thier distraction she improvised upon hers and Ronon's plan. She slipped a stunner free from it's holster on one of the wraith's belts, and proceeded to stun the seeker and both the normal wraith. Ronon quickly finished them off.

"Thanks," he panted to her. She grinned.

"You looked like you needed it."

He checked the corridor to make sure that there were no more wraith around, then let Adeena take the lead since she had a better idea of the layout of the hive, and where they were compared to where the cocoon room was.

"How long are we supposed to hide?" Adeena asked as she guided him slowly through the ship. He shrugged.

"Until they exit hyperspace; then we can steal a dart and get outta here." Adeena took a sharp turn around a corner.

"You know," she said, "there's something I should probably tell you..." they reached the cocoon room before she could finish, and Ronon began to search for a couple of empty ones. Adeena started to look at the people.

"What are you doing?" Ronon hissed.

"Looking for my brothers." He thought it was unlikely that they would be imprisoned in this particular room, if they were still alive; so he was surprised when she recognized one of them.

"Rinn!" she gasped. Slightly shocked, Ronon handed her a knife, and she cut him free. He moaned and his eyes flickered opened.

"Adeena?" he whispered. She smiled. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine; you will be too. Where's Alim?"

"Adeena..." Ronon was nervous being out in the open like this; but Adeena was determined to get her answer first.

"They killed him." Rinn rasped.

"Help me hide him," Ronon said, his voice urgent. Something didn't feel right.

Suddenly, a rotten smell assailed them; and the sound of sniffing reached Ronon's ears. Almost before his mind had made sense of it, a seeker appeared. But this one was different; it was not hunched and jerky and shuffling. It walked upright, and Ronon saw no insanity or wildness in it's eyes. His heart sank, as his fear was realized. Then the thing laughed. The sound was disgusting, like it was choking.

"So the runner runs straight into our arms again," it growled. Ronon moved between it and Adeena.

"That won't be necessary; I"m not going to harm her. She has served her purpose, and will not be hindered." Ronon looked at her with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ronon," she sobbed. "They said they would kill Rinn too." he sighed.

"You were looking out for your family," he said flatly. "Can't blame you for that."

"Ronon, please forgive me."

"Better get out before they change their minds."

"Yes, go," the seeker said, Once we exit hyperspace you may go anywhere you wish." with one final, apologetic glance at Ronon, Adeena helped her brother to his feet, and they limped out.

"What are you going to do? Ronon questioned theh creature before him, banishing Adeena from his mind. "You're the only seeker I've ever seen who's-"

"Intellegent?" it supplied. "A common misconception. No, in reality we know more then most."

"Then why the animal act?" he asked, to keep it talking as he explored his options for escape. They were not promising.

"We find it best not to let our food see the true masters," it grinned. "Even queens fear us."

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"You know what we're searching for; Atlantis. Although I am quite intrigued by your listener friend."

"Listener?" he questioned; but it ignored him.

"She might make a good queen for me," it continued. "What do you think about that, runner?" Ronon lunged at it; but it's reflexes were too good. It flung him across the toom, and he slammed into a wall.

"You have quite a temper," it shook it's head in mock sympathy. "You should learn to control yourself."

Ronon struggled to push himself to his feet.

"You're not gonna get what you want," he gritted. "You might as well kill me now."

"We still need you, or you would already be dead," it answered. Ronon's eyes flicked from it to the doorway to his right. It followed his gaze.

"You won't make it," it informed him. Ronon smiled a little.

"I don't need to," he suddenly charged the seeker, catching it off-guard and slamming into it's chest. As it reeled backward, he slipped out another knife from it's hiding place, and threw it. It found it's mark in the wraith's throat. Ronon bolted through the doorway that it had been standing in, and raced recklessly through the dark corridors.

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_A/N: I forgot to mention at the beginning that this story is completely unbetaed; so any mistakes are mine and mine alone. I'm almost done re-formatting the rest of the story, so thank you for your patience! :)_


	9. Healer's Hands

_Author's Note: Hey, lucky you! I was able to finish re-formatting tonight; and so now it is my great privilege to bring you these last three chapters. Enjoy!_

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**Chapter Eight**

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Ronon felt the ship shudder out of hyperspace, and paused for a minute. He wished he knew where the dart bay was; that Adeena hadn't tricked him and betrayed him. Agh! How could he have been so stupid?! But he'd believed every word of her story, of her fear. He'd never dreamed that she was even capable of lying to anyone. But she had. Man, he'd really set himself up good this time.

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In the cloaked jumper, they watched as the hive exited hyperspace. Sheppard headed toward it's dart bay.

"Alright, when we get onboard, Doc, you stay with the jumper."

"Why me?" he asked nervously.

"Because if we have to get out quick, we need you to un-cloak the jumper so that we don't have to go running around looking for it. And we need it cloaked so that the wraith won't find it. Also, if anything happens to us, you can still get away and get back to Atlantis to call in the troops or whatever."

"But I can't pilot these things-"

"You can do it, Doc!" he and Teyla and Rodney walked down the ramp, out of the protective field of the cloak.

"But Colonel-"

"See you in a bit!" he shut out the rest of Beckett's protests as they headed out of the opened and into a dark hallway. John looked at Teyla expectantly, but she had her eyes closed, and her forehead was creased in a confused frown.

"What is it?" McKay asked nervously. "Is something wrong?" her frown deepened as she concentrated harder.

"He is not where I dreamed him," she breathed, barely above a whisper. "He is not in the cocoon."

"Is this even the right ship?" Rodney questioned.

"He escaped a seeker," Teyla sounded distant, removed from them. "He is somewhere on this ship running, hiding..." her breath caught in her throat.

"You mean hunted like-"

"Yes, I do." Sheppard made a face.

"Alright, which way?" after a minute, she pointed.

"That way," she said.

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere."

Teyla navigated the corridors with practiced ease. Her "dream-fishing", as Sheppard had put it, had served her well. Like Lena had said.

"How are you tracking him, anyways?" McKay whispered after a while. "Are you actually tracking _him_?"

"No. I am shadowing the wraith following him."

"Well be careful," Sheppard cautioned. "We don't want 'em messing with your head." she didn't answer, maybe upset with his implications. They explored deeper into the hive.

Suddenly, the life-sense detector beeped in John's hand. McKay jumped.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Hey, here's a crazy idea on a hive. Maybe it's wraith!"

"Well how many?" Rodney persisted, ignoring his sarcasm. John turned the screen towards him, and his eyes grew wide.

"Okay, so it's lots. At least they don't know we're here, do they Teyla?" her lack of response scared him. "Teyla?" he turned, and saw her standing rigidly in place, her body shaking; from what, McKay didn't understand.

"It's the enzyme," Sheppard realized. "She's having withdrawl; it must be wearing off, leaving her system." she suddenly went limp, falling into his arms, and he lowered her to the ground. But suddenly, a seeker appeared in his vision from nowhere and hit him in the head. He fell unconscious to the ground.

McKay didn't see a seeker; he just saw John reel back and fall over, unconscious within seconds. He gripped his gun tighter and looked around. They were in the middle of a big, opened hallway, and he didn't have any one of the many skills required to fight a regular wraith, let alone a seeker.

He didn't immediately see anything, and had just begun to relax when he heard a low growl to his left. He swung his gun around, and saw the shine of eyes in the gloom. They were all around him; and now he could smell them, too. They were seekers.

Rodney shot up a brief prayer that he could at least save his friends, if not himself. Then he shifted his aim, trying to decide which of the seekers to take out first.

------------

Ronon saw the seekers converging, and he wondered what had distracted them from their real prey; him. And then he heard McKay's voice.

The sound of one of his friends at that moment was one of the most wonderful things he'd ever heard. But then reality hit with the realization that the seekers were going after them.

He drew two knives from his nearly endless supply and advanced cautiously forward, determined to save his friends, his own will to live renewed.

He was practically on top of the seekers now, but still they ignored him. This experience was making him realize how little he really understood about these creatures, this breed of wraith.

He looked past the creatures and saw his vision, the one that had gotten him captured, played out before his eyes; Sheppard and Teyla lying unconscious on the ground, Rodney standing over them, preparing to fight all the seekers.

At the sight of his vision made real, something inside Ronon snapped. He wasn't just fighting for his own life now; he was fighting for the lives of his friends, two of which were unable to defend themselves. And he was not going to let them down.

With the battle cry he'd created on Sateda a lifetime ago, he attacked. At the sound of his shout McKay started shooting blindly, spinning in a circle in an attempt to hit every one at once. He was amazed when his bullets actually found their targets and wraith began to fall. But there were still more. There were always more.

Ronon fought in a blind rage, simply lashing out and cutting down anything in his path in an effort to get to his friends. He saw one of the seekers slip in under McKay's line of fire and begin to paw and prod at his unconscious friends, poking John's stomach and chest and sniffing Teyla's hair.

With a cry of rage he threw himself forward, but more wraith blocked his path. He was fighting desperately to get to his friends, to save them from the creature that threatened their lives, hovering over them like a demon.

Suddenly, a bright flash of red struck the seeker, and it fell over, dead. He was amazed, but he knew better then to react this time; remembering how it had nearly gotten him killed. But he knew that that had been his gun.

To his absolute amazement, Adeena appeared through a throng of wraith. They either unaware of her or unable to touch her, because she was unhindered. In her hand was Ronon's gun. But when she reached Sheppard and Teyla, she knelt and laid it aside. She stretched out her right hand and ran it up Sheppard's side, and his head, her fingers lingering over his left temple. Then she turned to Teyla. She repeated the process, skimming her hand over her body and ending with her face. Very lightly, with her fingertips, she brushed the long, stitched-up scratch on her cheek; and it disappeared before Ronon's eyes. Then Teyla drew a deep breath, and Adeena sat back on her heels suddenly seeming very tired. But by then the battle was over.

Ronon went over to them, awkwardly patting the shoulder of a very shell shocked McKay. He looked at Adeena questioningly.

"It was never my intent to betray you," she said. "Only to make it appear that I did. I wouldn't have left without you." he gave a single nod.

"Thanks," he said. At that point McKay found his voice again.

"Oh my gosh, Ronon; we've been worried sick; what have you been doing?!" he grinned.

"Good to see you too, Rodney."

"Yeah, well don't count on it. You've got a lot of explaining to do! And since we're on the subject, who the _heck _is she and what did she do to Sheppard and Teyla?" Adeena smiled faintly.

"Charming," she said to Ronon dryly. "He is exactly as you described him."

"I'd answer him," he returned, faintly amused and equally curious. He was amazed at how Adeena had changed yet again; she no longer seemed like a child.

"Rodney, come here and I'll show you," she touched the cut on his head, and it disappeared. He gasped.

"How did you do that?"

"I have a gift," she explained. "It is called healer's hands."

"Tell you all about that later," but McKay brushed him off, still amazed by Adeena's powers.

"Healer's hands?"

"Yes. I do not know how to describe it. But it... cures many things." she turned to Ronon and ran her hands briefly up his arms and across his chest. All of his wounds disappeared, baffling both he and McKay.

"What else can you do?" he asked.

"I can heal people from the enzyme, like your friend here," she leaned down to check Teyla and Sheppard's pulses. "But I am a healer, not a magician."

"Coulda fooled me," McKay muttered. Ronon and Adeena shared a grin.

Sheppard and Teyla started to wake up; and the first thing that they saw was Adeena.

"Are you an angel?" John questioned groggily. Teyla hit him.

"Ow!" at least the pain woke him up. Adeena helped them both to sit up, and they groaned, holding aching heads in their hands.

"What happened?" John asked. Neither of them had yet turned around and seen Ronon behind them. McKay laughed.

"A lotta things," he said. He was getting a little giddy with relief and amazement. "I'll tell you all about it when we get home."

"Home?" Sheppard asked. "We haven't found-"

"Ronon!" Teyla cried softly. She'd felt the air move behind her, and turned to see him sitting on his haunches and laughing silently at their confusion. Laughing and crying at the same time, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. Sheppard grinned as he watched their reunion. He laughed.

"We missed you, buddy. Ready to get outta here?"

"Just about, Deena, where's Rinn?"

"I sent him to safety," she said.

"Well, do you need a ride?" Sheppard asked. She smiled gratefully, and seemed almost amused.

"Thank you," she said. "I would appreciate it."

"Okay, jumper's this way."

"There are more wraith coming," Teyla warned as Ronon helped her stand up. "From the direction of the dart bay." McKay groaned.

"Of course there are."

"We should find another way," Adeena said. John agreed completely.

"No offense to anyone here, but I don't think that any of us here are in any kind of shaped to fight another battle." For once, Ronon was content not to fight. He turned to Teyla.

"Which way is safe?" he asked. She didn't say anything, but again took the lead through the impossibly long corridors.

"So where can we drop you off?" Sheppard asked Adeena, hoping to distract at least one of them from the intensity of the situation that they were both clearly feeling. "Or do you want to come back with us for a while? I could show you around the city-" Rodney rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, like thats what you really want to do."

"Just trying to be friendly," John defended himself. "But aren't you the one who would need to stoop so low...?" Adeena looked at Ronon, and he grinned. This was about as close to home as he needed to be.

"You know your friends well," she commented.

"Interesting, aren't they?"

"They are at that."

They'd walked only a few minutes when Ronon recognized the hall they were in, and stopped.

"What is it?" McKay asked nervously.

"We're practically to the throne room," Ronon explained. "I had no idea we were this far into the hive," Sheppard shrugged gamely.

"I was hoping not to have another fight," he said, "But I'll make an exception for this queen; I've been meaning to give her a piece of my mind, anyways." Teyla tried to convince him otherwise.

"John, it is not worth it over a dream that did not even hurt me."

"Hey, I saw the blood on your chest. Susan here is gonna pay for it."

"You named the queen?" Rodeny asked, unimpressed.

"What did she do to you?" Ronon demanded an answer from Teyla, but it was John who replied.

"She tried dream feedin'; but Teyla woke up just in time. But we've all been having some pretty crazy dreams lately. Seriously, though, this will only take a minute. And a couple of clips..."

"This one won't go down easy," Adeena warned. "She has the strength of an army of seekers at her back." John tried to brush her off.

"They're just wild wraith, right? Don't know enough to run from people shooting at them." Ronon and Adeena shared a look, worrying him. "Right?"

"Not exactly." Ronon gave a brief explanation of what the seeker had told him in the cocoon chamber.

"So they're wild and crazy smart," Sheppard realized. "Well great. I hope they're not smart enough to find the jumper." Teyla turned on her radio.

"Carson, this is Teyla."

"Oh, thank God! Have you found him, are you on your way back yet?"

"Yes we found him," McKay said. "And yes, we _were _on our way back before Sheppard decided that he wants to go all hero and kill the wraith queen."

"What? Son, that's suicide!"

"I think she's the source of all the weird dreams we've been having; we have to kill her, or eventually she'll find us and then everyone back home will suffer for it." Beckett sighed.

"You're crazy, but you might as well hurry," he said.

"Will do. Hey, keep yourself hidden, alright Doc?"

"Believe me son, you should have no fear of that."

"Sheppard out."

"You know he's right," McKay told him. "You're crazy! How do you expect to stop her from killing you the second that you walk through that door? Or what if she calls all her seekers out to come and play?"

"I'll just have to be extra careful," he said, sounding desperate even to his own ears. Truth was that his friend was right.

"I will do it," Teyla sad softly. No one heard her.

"Sheppard, we can't just be your backup this time! Even with Adeena's magic, we're still tired, and who knows how many guards this queen has with her?"

"I will do it," Teyla repeated, louder. She was rewarded by her friend's silence as they turned to look at her.

"Teyla, you're the one she's been targeting!" McKay argued immediately. "There's no way you can do it."

"I will last longer then any of you!" she challenged. "She is intrigued with me; she will not kill me until she understands what she wants to know."

"She has a point," Adeena said. "This is what she has trained herself to do; she can combat not just the body, but the mind of the queen." Sheppard considered this, then shook his head.

"No," he said firmly. "Not happening. You're the one she wants to kill."

"Let her do it," Ronon said.

"Have you lost your mind?" McKay demanded. "You of all people-"

"She can handle it; Adeena's right, this is what she's worked for. Besides, of all of us she's the only one to have defeated the queen in any way."

"And I am the one that she wants, for whatever reason. So I am the one she will not call the seekers down on; she will keep me alive for herself."

"Do we really even need to do this?" McKay begged in one last, futile attempt to get them out of there without this confrontation. No such luck.

"Do you want to keep getting hurt because of your dreams?" he saw their point and remained silent. "Alright, then. But Teyla, are you sure you want to go in alone?"

"I will call you if I need you," she said.

"Good luck," Ronon said to her, sealing the discussion. "We'll be right outside." they reached the door to the throne room; and taking a deep breath, Teyla went in.


	10. Scream

**Chapter Nine**

------------

The queen jerked around when she heard the door open; then hissed angrily when she saw Teyla.

"You again?" she snarled. "Where have you been hiding?"

"I haven't," Teyla answered, allowing none of her fear to show. "Why, do I frighten you? Being able to stop you from feeding-"

"It will not happen a second time!" she took two steps forward, and jerked to a stop. Teyla allowed the corners of her lips to twitch up in a small smile.

"I am not so weak as you might think."

"A child trying out a bag of tricks? Yes, I am very afraid." the queen laughed, pushing harder against the mental barrier that Teyla had created that kept her from coming closer. "You cannot hold me back for long; you're nothing but a child given power, and not the faintest idea of what to do with it. Pity you're human, I'll admit; as one of us, your mind would have grown strong, until you might have surpassed even me. But I am more then just a fiend of your dreams, listener. I control them!" she broke through Teyla's mental barrier, and in a replay of her dream grabbed her throat and slammed her into the wall. But Teyla was still smiling. The queen's brow twisted in a frown.

"Why still smiling, girl? What are you hiding?" A thought flickered from Teyla's mind into the wraith's, startling her.

"How--- what did you do?!" Teyla struggled for a breath.

"Went... fishing," she gasped. The queen roared and pulled back her hand, ready to kill. Teyla had gathered all the air that she could into her lungs, and now she forced it out in a scream.

If the sound of it hurt her friend's ears, in the hall, the mental equivalent that slammed into the queen was pure agony. It tore at her and clouded her mind. Confused and disoriented she stepped back, releasing Teyla. Smiling, she stood over the helpless wraith queen and searched her mind until she found what she was looking for.

"I searched your mind," she said, insane pleasure overtaking her to see the queen frightened as so many of her people before they had been taken. All of her senses seemed to leave her in that moment, and she felt nothing but the raw power coursing through her, and hanging electric in the air after her scream.

"I found what I wanted; I know how to beat you now. Apparently this child really is stronger then you thought." She touched the exact bit of her mind that she had looked for, and gripped it firmly.

"For my father," she said, "for my mother. And for Aiden." she squeezed that vulnerable place, and the queen's eyes dimmed. Teyla held on for a few more seconds, then removed herself completely. A deep sigh flooded her body, and control returned to her. She looked down at the queen at her feet, confused and horrified and once again a little scared; unsure of what had happened after she had gotten into the queen's mind. She backed away a few steps, then turned and left the throne room and did not look back.

Alarms were wailing, but she hadn't heard them until that point. But no wraith had appeared yet.

"What was that?" Sheppard shouted over the noise.

"The end of the queen," Teyla answered briefly. Then she pointed them towards the jumper bay.

"If it effects them all as it did the queen they will be incapacitated for a few moments more," she said. "We must hurry." They ran for the bay.

In the halls they passed many wraith, crawling or stumbling around holding their heads and groaning and hissing. But none tried to stop them, and they made it to the jumper.

"What took you so long?" Carson demanded as Sheppard took the controls.

"Tell you later; for now, hang on!" Adeena took the seat next to him and dialed the gate; and they flew as fast as they could towards the rippling blue circle; towards safety.

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_Author's Note: I'm sorry that this was kinda dark or not quite in character. It's kind of hard to draw the line sometimes. Please let me know what you think!_


	11. epilogue

**Epilogue**

------------

Adeena's brother was waiting for them on the world that she'd taken them too; and after all that had happened that day they knew better then to ask how he had managed to get there. He looked perfectly fine, too; and they could only assume that Adeena had healed him as well.

They offered them both a home on the city, or a lift anywhere that they wanted to go. Adeena smiled.

"Thank you, but we can't. I still need to find my father. But if I ever do, I might consider your offer." They gave them an address to a planet where they had friends, and the name of a contact that they could get in touch with there if they ever did reconsider; as well as the promise that they'd always be ready to help them, after what Adeena had done for them. Then they said their goodbyes; Adeena and Rinn were leaving to search for their father, and the others were going home.

Adeena embraced Ronon warmly.

"Thank you, my friend," she said. "For never doubting me."

"Thanks for saving me," he returned. "I don't know whether you've grown through this, or you just faked the scared-little-girl act for me, but I'm really proud of you."

"Big praise from a Satedan," she grinned. "Thank you, Ronon. I hope you never have reason to think otherwise." she met his eyes.

"Goodbye, runner." Ronon could feel her watching the jumper as they took off.

"Where to now?" Sheppard questioned. "Back home?"

"Not yet," Ronon said. "There's something else that I need to do first." he dialed the gate.

------------

The Satedan ritual was to brave the mountain to prove yourself, but Ronon figured that all he had endured in the past few weeks was enough; and he had directed Sheppard to take him to the top of the mountain. At the top there was a clearing big enough for the jumper to land in. They did, and Ronon went off alone down a small path that passed a tree covered in pure white flowers. He picked two in an uncharacteristic gesture, and continued down the path.

The ritual was ancient, created long before Sateda had learned of the wraith and been torn apart by war. But it was one of the few traditions that had survived the militarization of his world, though it was used to test resilience for warriors rather then what Melina had asked Ronon for.

They had been on the mountain once when they were children, as a rite of passage. They had spent the night under the tree that he had picked the flowers from. When he had married her, he had told her that he would do anything that she wanted him to do; and she had talked about that tree, remembering that night that they had first become friends. She'd said that it was the start of everything, and that she wanted a flower from that tree, as a promise of his love. His mother had once told him that these flowers, called "Morning Stars", had once been a symbol of love on Sateda. It seemed appropriate.

The path he was on led to a stream, and he stood beside it for several long moments, thinking about Melina and how much he had loved her. He missed her.

He stared as the seven petals of the flowers in his hand, imagining that Melina was standing beside him, ready to receive the gift. Her face would shine like the morning light; and her eyes would mirror the stars. With a heavy sigh, he let the first flower drop into the stream and float away, his promise fulfilled. He's climbed for her flower, but she would never receive it. He stood quite still after that, still thinking and feeling remarkably free, staring at the remaining flower in his hands. This time he imagined Teyla standing by his side, ready to receive the flower. If Melina was a reflection if the sun and stars, Teyla WAS his morning light. Her sparkling eyes were the stars, not just a mirror for them. Everything that Melina had been, everything he had loved about her, was more alive, more real, and simply more in Teyla. And now his promise was fulfilled; he was no longer bound to it. He still loved Melina, he didn't think that he would ever be able to stop loving her completely; but now the door was opened for him to love others, whoever he wished. And he'd found that woman. Finally, after nine years, he was free.

"So what promise was this?" he jumped; he'd been so wrapped up in himself that he hadn't even hear her coming.

"I made it a long time ago."

"To whom?"

"Melina," he admitted, seeing no more reason to hide it. "Our last night before the culling," he paused. "Did you actually kill the queen?" she didn't answer as quickly as he would have expected.

"I am not sure," she said finally. "My memories of our encounter are blurry, vague; I was truly not aware of what was happening in the last few minutes. It was my intention to kill her; but I was not in control." she stopped for a second, gathering her thoughts. "As much as she did deserve to die, I can't help but be frightened by my actions; I was merciless, exactly as I have accused the wraith themselves of being. I don't want to be like them." she seemed to realized that she had revealed too much of herself, and she returned to his original question.

"I felt a flicker of conscious in her at the end, I think," she said. "But it was like a child's mind; she didn't feel ruthless."

"Do you think that her followers will kill her?" he wondered. "Her seekers?" he heard her sigh behind him.

"This is strange, but I hope not. No one deserves to die like that."

"Not even a queen," he agreed.

"What was your promise?' she questioned softly, returning unexpectedly yo their previous conversation.

"She asked me to come up here and get her a morning star," he said. "It was... symbolic, on Sateda."

"I am sure that wherever she is, she is honored that you would fulfill your promise to her in spite of all that you've been through." he heard her sigh, and her soft footsteps leaving him. He spun around, tripping over his own feet in his haste.

"Teyla, no... this isn't for her... I had hers, but I gave it to the stream cause she's dead... but this one's not for her..." she was amused to find him even more inarticulate then usual.

"Why did you throw away her flower?" she asked.

"That's what you do if they're dead when you keep your promise... but that doesn't matter... at least, not right now..." she let him babble on for a few more seconds, until he finally composed himself.

"This flower isn't for Melina," he said again, taking her hands. "It's for you." Teyla looked at the flower he'd left in her hands. She didn't know what to say or even think.

Ronon stared at her, waiting for her response. She didn't know what that flower meant; what he was promising her whether she accepted it or not. He knew he should tell her, he really should. If he was going to give it to her she deserved to know. He opened his mouth to speak... and closed it again. He couldn't do it. For now it was enough that they were alive and safe again. Maybe one day he'd find the courage to tell her what it meant , what she meant to him. But not today. Today, he was content to just be friends, as they had always been.

"Thank you," she whispered, and he broke out of his musings.

"You're welcome." Awkwardly, he put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulders gently.

"Now I'm ready to go home," he said. They walked back to the jumper, feelings still hidden, promises unspoken. And love unashamed.

Fin.

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_Author's Note: I hope that you've enjoyed this :) Thank you for reading!_


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